You Can’t Take Inconsistent Legal Positions in Palm Beach Probate Litigation

Be careful, be very careful when you make arguments in Palm Beach probate court.  Why?  Because you need your ducks in a row.  Your estate litigation law firms Palm Beach can’t take inconsistent positions, even if you get a new probate lawyer.  A recent case, issued on September 24, 2014, which is not a probate case, but is a 4th District Courtof Appeal case, highlights this important litigation strategy.

• Here’s the short of it:  you can’t, for example, say that you were a party to a contract on a Monday, and seek relief under that contract, and then, on a Tuesday, get a new lawyer who says the opposite.
• “[L]itigants are not permitted to take inconsistent positions in judicial proceedings and [] a party cannot allege one state of facts for one purpose and at the same action or proceeding deny such allegations and set up a new and different state of facts inconsistent thereto for another purpose.” Fed’d Mut. Implement & Hardware Ins. Co. v. Griffin, 237 So. 2d 38, 41
  (Fla. 1st DCA 1970).
• In terms of Palm Beach probates, or estate litigation, consider the following: Your 85 year old rich uncle from Lake Worth, Florida dies with $3 Million in a bank account.  A  Palm Beach probate is opened up and his will is filed.  You learn that the last will leaves everything to his 26 year old hot neighbor who has only known your uncle for 12 months.  Hmmm…..
• You file a Palm Beach will contest after hiring a probate litigation law firm Palm Beach.
• If you are argue that the will is invalid, this general principle of law says that you can’t later take an inconsistent position.   But…. do you know the difference between that, and what probate litigators refer to as arguing in the alternative?  
• Understand that while you can change your legal position, you need to do it within the confines of what is permitted in the probate courts of Palm Beach County, under Florida law and within the Florida rules of civil procedure.
• A simpler way to say it?  Well, a Boca Raton probate lawyer may suggest that while you can argue, you can’t argue out of both sides of your mouth.

Here is the link to read this new, West Palm Beach appeals court opinion online for free:http://4dca.org/opinions/Sept.%202014/09-24-14/4D13-1470.op.pdf